Roratoura and Maori Tour

Apologies, I'm terribly behind with my updates. This was one of my favorite tour and days thus far! Our Viatour guide, Richie, was a retired principal and he was very knowledgeable about the area and culture.

This little town is amazing, and not unlike some of our own beach towns in California. Aside from the fact there were a lot of geothermal hot springs everywhere, there were pine forests, agricultural kiwi farms, and dairies galor!

Joining Our tour was Sandi & Kevin, Rich & Sunny, and Colleen & Frank. We soaked our feet in hot thermal pools and we walked on the longest suspended redwood tree walk. We toured a large kiwi farm and it reminded me of Brooks' and Ivor's avocado farm.

The homes were absolutely beautiful and contmporary and we were reminded once again this area of New Zealand is sitting on multiple volcanic craters. We learned about the over 10,000 earthquakes per year and how after a recent 7.2 earthquake has caused them to institute mandatory earthquake drills in primary school. We shouldn't have done it, but we decided to watch the Netflix White Island movie regarding the geothermal catastrophy that killed and burnt many tourist visiting from a cruise ship. So sad for so many.

Another thing we learned about was the New Zealand retirement scheme. Everyone receives a modest pension not unlike our social security. Sadly, it's not likely to cover everyone's expenses and they're trying to encourage those coming up to save more in a Save Kiwi fund similar to our IRA plans. Housing is extremely expensive and they have built several retirement communities not unlike a large Trilogy community. If you're fortunate to be able to buy a home here, there's an interesting twist. If you purchase your home for NZD 1M, they agree to pay you back that same amount minus 15% when you move or pass away. If your home appreciates, which of course they do, the developer gets the money when they turn around and sell it to the next person. The is called "SKI," Spending Kids Inheradence. Luckily Brandon & Danielle, we're not moving here!

Hard to believe it's our last night on board our ship. A few are going home and most are continuing on with us back to part three of our vacation touring South Island. I hate packing the night before you must leave. It's always tough fitting everything back in your bags--especially when you're bringing back souveniors. Of all the 20 of us, James and I bought the most luggage! I will definitely rethink things on our next cruise!Read more